


WOY Mini-Fic-A-Thon 2017 - Preach Electric to a Microphone Stand

by 3amepiphany



Series: WOY Mini Fic-A-Thon 2017 [1]
Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: Gen, Peepers is there too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 07:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9169270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3amepiphany/pseuds/3amepiphany
Summary: I'm a mascot for what you've become.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, time doesn't care about anyone or anything, y'all, don't you know that? But people do. Leave your impressions with them, and on them. They'll call you a legend for it.
> 
> http://omegalovaniac.tumblr.com/post/155310565939/how-about-hater-giving-autographs-to-kids-who-want

“It’ll come. Just hang in there and before you know it, it’ll feel just like the old days - and you remember the old days. The hottest chicks in the star system all lined up for you to sign their shirts, their skirts, their posters, their artfully crafted and mostly harmless fanfiction of you and their original characters. And you’ll take it in stride, with an ice-cold bottle of Thunder Blazz next to you and a box of the shiniest felt-tipped silver Skarple markers, but it will be better. It’ll be so much better. You won’t even believe it. It’s levels above the way it used to be. And it won’t just be hot chicks there for the Picstagram ops, it won’t be people looking for bragging rights saying they’ve loved you ever since you were shooting t-shirts out of the back of your van with that silly cannon you’ve had forever. It’ll be people you inspired deeply, who want to come to you and let you know how thankful they are. People whose lives you saved and want you to see what they’re making of the extra time you bought them, that was going to be robbed from them.”

Hater sat there silently for a bit while Jeff took a moment to finish his drink. The room was calm and quiet; Peepers had made absolutely sure that they would be undisturbed once Jeff had shown up and said he wanted to talk. “When I think about it, that’s sort of what I was doing, though.”

“Yeah, that was a struggle.”

“I… I can’t explain it. Not now, at least.”

“It’ll come.”

There was a lot to take in and a lot to unpack about it at the same time, and he certainly was conflicted. He’d had his time at the top of the mountain and gotten bored, bored of being alone and bored of making it so he’d be alone. Granted, Peepers had been there for such a long time, but he knew there was a rift, a terrible shift in the way their friendship had suddenly become all about the business of battling and conquering, and while that was how his best friend seemed to thrive, he didn’t like the way they started to devolve between them when he found that sudden distraction he never knew he really needed. Peepers was there to keep him focused, and he was being a real pill about it because Hater was in that transitional stage of finding a new focal point, and there was resentment. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, ever.

But to be completely honest about it, the top was a bit of a lull, and he missed the mayhem. The harder it became for him to keep his hold on that Number One spot on the leaderboard, the more fun things were. The more spontaneous he found himself becoming to stretch for a new goal that wasn’t any higher than the top, no, it was just further away, off to the side. Just far enough that he’d have to leap.

He found himself wondering if maybe that was all goals were, just, stepping stones, and that life was really just a long, meandering path of them to get to, one after the other instead of just a singular achievement to grasp and say, “Game over, I won.”

After all, how many of those stepping stones that he’d passed on the way to Number One were achievements in themselves?

He remembered when Peepers had presented him with a stack of a dozen t-shirts with their band logo ironed-on, and how it took them almost just as many shows they opened to sell them all. And now he thought about the line outside the little room they were getting ready to walk to, so he could do this meet and greet. He wasn’t even playing a show or taking over the planet they were currently on; it was them receiving him in thanks for saving the galaxy, and a show in his honor. Peepers was still there, trying to do right by him as rough as it had been to switch directions on it all. 

“Everything changes as much as it stays the same.”

Jeff looked at him earnestly, and smiled. “Listen, you’re a mold-breaker. So am I. So are the rest of us. No two person's’ story is the exact same, even if it unfolds in the same way. You’ve already surpassed me in the manner in which you’ve changed.”

Hater shook his head, “It’s not… it’s not like that.”

“No?”

“It wasn’t a surpassing moment if our stories are mostly the same. You and I, were friends now, right? Equals. There’s no surpassing. Just different milestones.”

“Hah, yeah, we are,” Jeff laughed heartily. “It’s nice to have peers as your competition, isn’t it? Instead of someone who wants to just obliterate you, it’s growth for a good, healthy reason. Makes you all warm and happy inside.”

“It’s a slow polarization,” Hater said. There was a knock at the door, and Peepers peeked in, asking him if he was ready to get going; the line was phenomenal and there was a little bit of worry that they’d be pushing the schedule’s buffer.

And while he was ready to greet such large, excited fans again after some time of forced crowds and then nothing at all, what he wasn’t ready for and what he couldn’t believe was how much of the line coming in and queuing at the table to get photos and signatures was made up of kids and teens - all awed smiles and happiness, aspirations and hope and open futures. He could feel his heart pounding like a kick drum not out of nervousness, but out of a renewed sense of direction. It was electrifying.


End file.
